Ohio: Tell Your State Senator to Support CFI’s Secular Celebrant Bill

April 12, 2017

Several weeks ago, Ohio State Sen. Michael Skindell, working in collaboration with the Ohio branch of the Center for Inquiry, introduced a bill that will authorize secular celebrants to solemnize marriages across the state.

Ohio Senate Bill 52 would reword the current Ohio law governing marriage officiants to allow anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, to register with the Secretary of State and receive the authorization to solemnize marriages.

If SB 52 becomes law, secular humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Ohioans will no longer have to settle for marriage by government employee, or through some quasi-religious mail-order certification, but will instead be able to celebrate this milestone event in a way that embraces their worldview.

Members of the Ohio branch of the Center for Inquiry actively lobbied the state legislature to take up this crucial issue of equal treatment for nontheistic Americans. Skindell embraced the idea, and worked with CFI to introduce the bill, which was sent to the Local Government, Public Safety and Veterans Affairs committee.

Now it’s time for other state senators to join Skindell, and co-sponsors Sen. Joe Schiavoni and Sen. Cecil Thomas, in pushing for — and even co-sponsoring — this important bill.

That’s where you come in: CFI urges you to call or write your state senator right now and tell them to support Ohio Senate Bill 52!